American Go E-Journal » Go News

In the decisive fourth round, OGP defeated PoGo 3-1 to take first place in the Finnish Team Championship, held April 17-18 in Espoo, Finland. OGP was led by Su Yang 6d who went undefeated in the five round event, which featured six teams of four players. PoGo’s second man Juri Kuronen 4d also won all his games. In the open team title, five teams of three players battled for five rounds with Dango defeating PoGo in another decisive fourth round.
– Peter Dijkema, EJ European Correspondent, reporting on EuroGoTV

With Gu Li 9P and Chen Yaoye 9P tied 1-1, the Tianyuan (Tengen) goes to a decisive third round on April 23. Gu defeated Chen by resignation in the first round of the 24th Tianyuan on Tuesday, and Chen returned the favor on Thursday.– JustPlayGo for more photos and both game records

Japan’s Suzuki Ayumi 5P made an impressive run in the LG Cup qualifying preliminaries, making it to the semifinals before being defeated by Korea’s Heo Yeongho 7P on April 22. Earlier, she had defeated China’s Gu Lingyi 5P in the second round and Korea’s Moon Myeonggeun 9P in the third. Suzuki Ayumi reached the challenger final for the Female Kisei, took second place in the Female Meijin league in 2010 and was runner-up for Female Honinbo in 2008.– based on reports on JustPlayGo

Orestes Pérez 5k of Madrid became the lucky thirteenth Champion of Sevilla last weekend, sweeping all six rounds of the April 17-18 handicap tournament. Hakuba Kuwano 3d won the silver cup and local Luis Salgado 8k took bronze. A total of 56 players took part.– Peter Dijkema, EJ European Correspondent, reporting on EuroGoTV

Local player Dawid Libront 18k became a club hero after a clean sweep of the full handicap tournament in Bydgoszcz, Poland held on Sunday, April 18. Libront defeated two 10k club colleagues on his way to victory. Roman Kamynski, one of the 10k players, won silver after a tie-breaker with Robert Oczkowski 4k (photo) of Torun. Twelve played in the tournament.– Peter Dijkema, EJ European Correspondent, reporting on EuroGoTV

Mirco Fanti 2k of Bologna earned an extremely close victory in the Primo Torneo A Faenza on Saturday, April 17 in Faenza, Italy. Fanti’s deciding win in the handicap tournament came against Italian vice-Champion Davide Minieri 3d of Padova, after they both finished even on all tie-breakers. Leonardo Dal Zovo 2k (r) of Forleone won bronze 3-1. Mario Fava 11k of Treviso and local hero Stefano Giurin 13k also won three games each. Sixteen players participated. Click here for complete results. In other Italian go news, Javaness reported last Sunday that Gionata Soletti, long-time FIGG (Italian Go Federation) Secretary — and organizer of two European Go Congresses – is under house arrest. Javaness cites Italian newspaper reports detailing allegations about Soletti’s financial involvement with a politician who has pleaded guilty.– Peter Dijkema, EJ European Correspondent, reporting on EuroGoTV

Franz-Josef Dickhut 6d (l) went undefeated to win the Baduk Botschafter (Ambassador’s) Cup held April 17 in Berlin. That qualifies Dickhut to participate in the Korea Prime Minister Cup later this year. Bernd Schütz 4d finished ahead of Robert Jasiek 5d and Matthias Terweij 4d, each with 3 wins. Ronnie Wilhelm 9k also won all of his games. 48 players took part in the tournament; complete results here.– Peter Dijkema, EJ European Correspondent, reporting on EuroGoTV

Two grassroots efforts to replace the popular GoDiscussions.com forum – which has been plagued with technical issues in recent months – have resulted in a new home for go fans to discuss go topics online. When the GoDiscussions users decided on Wednesday to move to the new Life in 19×19 Forums Shodan Imports owner Chuck Thomas redirected all traffic from igodojo.org to Life in 19×19 Forums. “Let’s get on with the endless arguments, pedantic nitpicking and good old fashioned grumpiness!”said “user CarlJung.”– Dennis Wheeler

Reigning Russian Champion Ilya Shiksin 7d of Kazan won all five rounds at the Spring Youth Festival last weekend in Moscow. Reigning women’s Russian Champion Natalia Kovaleva 5d lost only to Shiksin, but defeated local Oleg Mezhov 6d, who finished third, also with a 5-1 result. In Kirov, Alexej Oglobin 4k beat ﻿Alexandr Shishin 4k on strength of schedule to win the Sunday Spring Tournament on April 18 with 16 participants. In Moscow, 32 played in the 1st league, while 47 played in the 2nd league which was topped by two undefeated players: Aleksandr Tishin 6k and Ksenia Shchipicina 8k.
– Peter Dijkema, EJ European Correspondent, reporting on EuroGoTV

The Strong Players Online Tournament (SPOT1) launches tonight, April 23, at 7P on KGS, with three matches between U.S. players, as well as six Canadian players battling for three slots in the Top 32. The first major online open tournament in recent years has attracted a lot of interest from players and fans alike. Among the thirty-five strong players from Canada, the United States and Mexico are Korean 9-dan professional — and two-time US Open Champion — Myung Wan Kim, Canadian Yongfei Ge 7D, also a two-time US Open winner, and 2006 NAIM Champion Zhaonian “Michael” Chen 7D from New Jersey. “Every team is tough,” said Yixian Zhou 7D from Los Angeles, better-known as “missbear” on KGS. “But I will have fun to learn from the strong players.” Changlong Wu 7D from North Carolina encourages fans to “Come and watch, and join the AGA today.” The tournament continues over the weekend. Click here for the pairings. schedule and results. – Zhiyuan “Edward” Zhang, SPOT1 Tournament Director